


cold

by bertererei



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Common Cold, Foul Language, Gen, Mangaka Eren Yeager, OOC, mangaka!eren
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:13:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26806405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bertererei/pseuds/bertererei
Summary: "Ah," he realizes as the shower head sprays him with cold water from above. "I think I have a cold."
Relationships: Eren Yeager & Zeke, Floch & Eren Yeager
Comments: 7
Kudos: 190





	cold

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Modern Day AU. Mangaka!Eren. OOC. Foul language.
> 
> This is a story about having a pretty bad common cold. It is not a story about the beer virus.

It's still the middle of the night when he wakes up due to how hot it is. He's drenched with sweat, he thinks with a grimace. Kicking off the blanket doesn't quite help. He feels sluggish and tired, but he forces himself out of his room and towards the bathroom in the hallway.

A cold shower sounds so good right now.

His body feels so heavy. That's probably what he gets for competing against Jean during weight training today. Armin warned him not to overdo it, too. And, like an idiot, he got baited by Jean's grade-school level jeers for the third time this week. But in his defense, he won, so this bit of tiredness is acceptable.

Oh, it looks like Zeke's rubber duckie fell into the tub at some point of the night. Eren braces himself by putting a hand on the wall and reaches for the duckie.

It's possible that he slipped. He's actually not too sure. But in one second, he is reaching for the duckie. In the next, he has fallen into the tub, the duckie in his hand. His ears are ringing. Or maybe that's his head? He might have hit it on the way down, because it's throbbing like mad, and he feels like there's some kind of liquid pooling around his head.

Ah yes, this is exactly what Eren meant when he swore to his brother that he'll be a productive member of the household, so could Zeke please find it in his heart to let Eren stay here until Carla forgives him for dropping out of school? And it just so happened that it was comfortable living here, so Eren gave up mending things with Carla and... Damn. He really should apologize to his mom for being such a brat. He should probably get her those lilies she love so much while showing her his serialized manga. See? He can do it, too. He just needed school and other bothersome things to not take up his time.

The liquid around him doesn't smell like blood. But man, his head really hurts. Maybe it's that he can't register the smell of blood? No, no. He can't be that far gone. Because he's still capable of thinking quite a lot. So most likely...

"Ah," he realizes as the shower head sprays him with cold water from above. "I think I have a cold."

What a relief, he thinks. He has a deadline tomorrow, and an excuse like "I fell in the bathtub and broke my head" won't fly with Floch after the axe-murderer incident. But a cold is much more believable. Not that Eren is trying to worm his way out of a deadline, that is. He has the chapter finished. All he has to do is hand it over to Floch. But it's also kind of funny to make Floch panic by making him think that the work isn't done and Eren is too sick to work. It's one of those things, you know? Something-something you get sick pleasure out of making those in charge of you panic.

He should probably turn off the showerhead. Not only is that wasteful, but it's also going to jack up the water bill for the month. But he can't seem to gather any strength to push himself up from the tub. Ah, there goes Zeke's hard-earned money going down the drain... This wouldn't be a problem if Zeke let Eren help pay the bills. Thanks to his serialization, Eren's saving is getting impressive. Stupid Zeke and his stupid need to be the reliable older brother. Is it that hard to trust Eren? Why can't he just be like any other scum of the world and let Eren pay for things?

A hesitant knock on the door snaps Eren out of his thoughts.

"Eren? I heard something fall. Is everything okay in there?"

Think of the monkey, and he shall appear.

"I'm fine," is what Eren wanted to say.

But his throat is really sore. He assumed at first that it was just him being groggy from sleep. But it's actually a sore throat because of a cold, isn't it? Ugh. This sucks.

He smacks the wall to make some kind of a noise to let Zeke know that he's fine. But he forgot that he was still holding the duckie. It flies out of his hand and hits the shampoo bottle, which then strikes down everything near it before noisily landing in the tub with Eren. So much for being a productive member of the household. Zeke's going to be so worried.

The doorknob turns.

"It's open, so I'm coming in," Zeke calls out.

He sounds surprised that it's unlocked. To be honest, Eren is, too. He must have been too tired to have even thought of locking the door. That's for the best, really. At least like this, Zeke can turn off the water before the water bill becomes too ridiculously high that they're forced to eat nothing but cup ramen for days. Not that that has ever happened, of course. Zeke's a responsible adult with emergency money saved to the side for things like that. And because of that, Eren won't be given the chance to show off how cool and mature he's become by help pay the bills. Damn it, Zeke. Be irresponsible for once. Let Eren shine, too.

"Eren!"

Zeke rushes to Eren's side by the tub. He clearly looks like he's panicking, if he's just reaching for Eren instead of turning off the water first. So Eren points at the showerhead.

"Off."

Ugh. His voice is so hoarse. That's the best he can manage out right now. But luckily, his brother must have understood, because he turns off the water. Then Zeke turns to help pull Eren out of the tub.

Eren feels unsteady on his feet. Zeke puts the toilet lid down so that Eren can at least sit there to rest. Then Zeke grabs the towel and helps dry Eren off.

"Are you alright? Did you fall?"

"Cold," Eren manages out.

Zeke wraps the towel around Eren. "I'll be right back. Stay here."

Not like Eren has many places he needs to go. God, he feels so tired. If he were to fall asleep right now, would he be able to keep himself upright? Probably not, right? Maybe he should have stayed in the tub. He wants to go back to bed.

"I brought you a change of clothes," Zeke says gently. He puts the clothes to the side and takes the towel from Eren. "Do you want help getting dressed?"

Pride says that he can take care of it himself. But he feels so damned tired, and he doesn't want to keep sitting in his drenched clothes.

Eren nods.

Zeke doesn't say anything snide. He quietly helps Eren take off his wet clothes, dry off with a towel, and put on the clothes Zeke brought. Due to some dumb family drama, Eren didn't grow up with Zeke. But he imagines that if they had, this kind of things would've happened frequently. Not because Eren catches cold easily. But because Eren would've taken advantage of Zeke's good will to see how much he can get away with. It's one of taking pleasure by making those in charge of you panic or whatever. 

... It was probably for the best that they didn't grow up together. Eren was a shit human as a child (He supposes Jean would argue that he still is).

Eren leans heavily against his brother for support. "Tired," he mumbles.

"Hey, don't fall asleep yet. We need to dry your hair before your cold gets worse."

Right. Right. Eren will leave that to his trusty big brother and go to sleep. He buries his face against his brother's warmth.

He thinks he might have heard Zeke's exasperated sigh, but he can't quite focus. Oh well. Zeke is here. Things will be fine now.

Eren allows himself to fall asleep.

*

He wakes to the sound of violent coughing. It takes him a second to realize oh hey, that's him. That's him coughing up his lung. His head feels like it's going to split open with every cough. It feels like there's something in his throat, threatening to claw out. If that was all, he would grudgingly accept that as a side effect of a cold. But his body aches all over on top of everything.

This is miserable.

Blindly, Eren reaches out to find his phone. He should at least call or text Floch to hold the fort down. Maybe do a little tap dance on the table to distract everyone from the fact that Eren's going to miss his deadline.

Zeke takes Eren's hand and holds it tightly. Something cold is placed on Eren's forehead. Did his brother stay by his side the entire time? Ah shoot. Eren didn't mean to worry him this much. It's fine, really. Zeke can leave Eren to sleep it off, and he'll be better after a day. Zeke doesn't have to make that kind of expression.

"S-sorry," he whispers.

"Don't be." Zeke squeezes Eren's hand to assure him. "Just worry about getting better, okay?"

He feels like he's being spoiled too much. There's an irrational fear that whispers that he mustn't accept such kindness. The minute he does, everything will come crashing down. If he wants to keep this peaceful life he has built for himself, he has to reject this.

"I'm okay," Eren manages out between coughs.

"I know," comes the reliable words.

"W-work. Don't skip."

Because Zeke's coworkers are relying on Zeke to present tomorrow in hopes that their company will be chosen for funding over hundreds of others. It won't be fair of Eren to steal Zeke from that. Their company is riding on this funding (It actually isn't that serious. But Eren likes to imagine it is, because it makes Zeke look that much cooler, not that he'd tell that to his brother). Besides, Eren saw how much Zeke worked, even at home, to make this presentation perfect. How many times has Eren sat as an audience for Zeke's practices? After all that hard work, Eren refuses to be the reason why Zeke couldn't present.

"Go. You're... gonna catch it," Eren says.

There's a small pause of silence before Zeke squeezes Eren's hand. "Okay. I get it. I'll put your phone right next to your pillow right here. If you're not feeling comfortable or you just want to hear someone, you can call me. Don't worry about the time. I'll always answer."

Yeah, like hell Eren would call Zeke during his work hours.

"Go," Eren mumbles.

Zeke releases his hand slowly. Eren can feel his brother lingering a bit longer before heading towards the door.

Oh right. Before he falls asleep, he should...

"Zeke, good luck."

He doesn't know how Zeke reacted to that. He drifts back to sleep.

*

Ugh. What is that godawful noise? It's making his head hurt even worse. Who is blaring that obnoxious...

Oh.

It's his ring tone.

The better question is who is calling him at this time of...

Eren squints at the clock on his desk on the other side of the room. Okay. His bad. It's actually 11:05 in the morning. It's quite possible that he's feeling this cranky because he's hungry. Or maybe not, because the thought of food just made him feel really nauseous.

There's no lingering sign of Zeke in this room, so his brother probably left for work on time as normal. That's good. Eren would've felt too guilty if he messed that up for Zeke after mooching off of him for so long.

The world goes blissfully silent as the phone stops ringing. Eren's head hurts marginally less. But now that he's awake, he notices how drenched with sweat he is. Ah, this is so gross... He'll probably have to shower after this.

Unfortunately, the peace doesn't last.

That damned obnoxious ringtone starts up again. Who the hell is trying this hard to reach him for? Didn't they get the hint after the first one missed?

With a groan, Eren finally picks up his phone. The caller ID reads "Floch."

Damn him.

"What?" he manages out when he answers the call. It hurts to talk. His throat feels worse than it did last night. Can't Floch just telepathically understand that Eren isn't in a good mood?

"Please! I am begging you. Please pick up the phone! Do you know how worried I was?"

Eren's anger evaporates, even though his headache doesn't. Okay, yeah. That's his bad. Today's a deadline, and Floch couldn't get in contact with Eren. Of course, Floch would be panicked. Eren should have asked Zeke to send Floch a message last night. But he completely forgot.

"Sor-"

Another bout of violent coughs leave his mouth. His throat and chest feel like they're on fire. The coughs sound wet, which is never a good sign. Ugh. He feels horrible. He wants to go back to sleep. But he hasn't emailed the files to Floch yet. Hell, he can't even recall if he finished working. What was the last thing that he drew? How many more pages is there to work on?

"Sorry," Eren squeezes out. He forces himself out of the bed and stumbles his way towards his computer. "I-I'll get the files... to you..."

His words keep getting interrupted by his coughs. His head hurts. He knows that the ground is flat and that the world isn't shaking, but from the way everything keeps spinning, it's hard to put one foot in front of the other.

"A-are you okay? If you're not feeling-"

He doesn't know what the rest of Floch's words are.

Why, you ask? Simple.

His knees give out on the way to his desk.

He finds himself looking up at the ceiling of his room, contemplating how bad it would be if he were to just sleep down here. Faintly, he's aware of Floch yelling from his phone. But he can't seem to muster up the strength to look for where he dropped it. He'll just rest here a bit. That's not too bad, right?

Of course, he can't.

Don't get him wrong. He wants to. He wants to really badly. But the deadline is today. And he didn't fight with his mom and drop out of school only to be a lazy bum that leeches off of his big brother while he plays at being a mangaka. No, fuck that. He's a professional.

He forces his protesting body back up and shakily makes his way to his desk. He wakes his computer up (If he can't rest, neither can it). Oh, that's right. He did finish drawing everything, didn't he? It's starting to come back. He finished everything. In fact, didn't he already send an email with all the files attached to Floch before going to sleep? Or maybe he was in the middle of that?

Checking his email, he realizes that he must have clicked "save" instead of "send." No wonder Floch was so panicked.

Eren sends the email, feeling satisfied. There. Now Floch will have the files, too. Eren _is_ a productive member of the household and of society. See? His mom didn't have to worry that he didn't finish school at all! He can function just fine. Zeke is totally not babying him by letting him stay. He is contributing.

Since he's up anyways, why don't he take a quick shower to wipe down the sweat before heading back for sleep? And if he feels better, maybe he should make himself something easy to eat? There should be pudding in the fridge, if it comes down to that. Yeah, no. The thought of food makes him too nauseous. He'll skip that. And actually, he's not sure if his legs will be able to support himself for a shower. It might end up like last night, and he doesn't exactly want to spend the rest of today in the tub, waiting for Zeke to get back.

Then perhaps just a change in scenery might do him good?

Completely forgetting about his phone, he stumbles his way into the living room and opens the balcony door.

The air is much too cold for this. His drenched self feels like he's freezing. This was a horrible plan. Why did he decide to do this? He tries to close the balcony door, only to realize that he has spent all of his energy getting here.

Eren finds himself on the floor for too many times today.

You know what? He gives up. He finished his duty. He turned his manuscript in for the deadline. He isn't bothering anyone by sleeping in the living room with the balcony door open. And yeah, it's a bit cold, but whatever. It'll be good to break his fever. Yeah. Let's go with that.

Damn. He's so tired.

* * *

Their conversation last night over phone went something like this:

Floch, as soon as he noticed something strange, asked, "Eren, your voice sounds off. Are you okay?"

"It does? Now that I think about it, I guess my throat does feel a bit itchy."

"As soon as you're done, you should get some sleep," Floch advised.

This is how they always spend the night before the deadline, by the way. Out of all the mangakas that Floch is in charge of, Eren is the most likely to forget about his deadline (On the first deadline Eren had with Floch as his new editor, Eren went on a trip to the beach and forgot to tell Floch. So this is due to Floch's fear that that might happen again, yes. But it's also just convenient and works for them). The night before one, Floch always sits with him like this while Eren works. Then as soon as Eren finishes, he uploads it to the cloud for Floch to finish up his own round of edits before he sends it off to be printed with the rest of the magazine.

He at first called this morning to check up on how Eren was doing. Sure, Zeke's the type to be overprotective so Floch knew that Eren will be fine. But it never hurts to check in. When that call went ignored, he tried again during his morning break. During his lunch break, he finally got through, and Eren picked up. Except what the hell was that rather worrisome sounds he heard? And now Eren isn't answering despite not having hung up, and Floch feels like ripping out his hair. As if that's not enough of confusion, Eren then sent Floch an email with the files of the manga that Floch already has.

Worried?

Wouldn't any sane person be?

"I'm really sorry about this," he tells his coworker, who just rolls their eyes at him.

"Go make sure Eren's alive."

"Thank you again!"

Floch leaves taking care of the files for his other mangakas to his coworker and runs for Eren's apartment.

*

Eren moved in with his older brother Zeke when he was fifteen. Floch heard bits and pieces of what happened but not the full story. He assumes it has something to do with Eren's parents disagreeing with his choice in occupation, because yeah, Floch gets that. Unless you get super lucky, your work will never be acknowledged. But Eren is now a serialized mangaka and has been for the past four years, so Floch personally feels like this tension between his family is odd. But hey, he's not here to judge.

He just wants to know if Eren is going to be alive to make it to his fifth year.

Due to an incident three months ago involving Eren accidentally forgetting to save his finished files to the cloud before falling asleep in the shower while Zeke was out at work, Zeke gave Floch a spare copy of the apartment key. Floch, of course, received this with the solemn promise to only use it for the sake of Eren's health (and his manga).

He's pretty sure this counts.

Floch opens the door, and damn it, he knew it. He knew it.

Eren is collapsed in the living room by the balcony (Open, by the way. Why the hell did he...? You know what, Floch is going to focus on that later). Floch makes sure to close the main entrance door first (Don't want a repeat of six months ago with the neighbors, after all) before he rushes to Eren's side.

Good news, Eren is breathing.

Bad news, Eren has a really bad fever and is shivering like mad.

Floch feels a headache forming. He scoops up Eren in his arms and put him down on the couch for now. Then he closes the balcony door. Let's see. He should first alleviate the fever and make sure that Eren is plenty warm. So he should grab a blanket from Eren's room and then the possibly a bucket or something... Do they have a bucket? He doesn't recall. Okay. That's fine. He'll just use a bag of ice or something.

Thank god his company holds training every year for basic first aid.

*

Eren's shivering has calmed considerably, but his fever is still pretty high. Floch found some ice cubes in the freezer that he put in a plastic baggie before wrapping that in a towel to put on Eren's forehead. But that might be too little. Let's see. Should he get more ice cubes? But Eren was sleeping with the balcony door open, so it might be better to not lower his body temperature any more.

"... Mom..."

Floch glances at Eren, who begins to cough again. It subsides after a few more seconds. It's not the sickly wet cough Floch heard over the phone, so Floch is hopeful that Eren is getting better.

"Oh Eren," Floch mumbles. He gently moves Eren's bangs out of his face. "You go apologize to her as soon as you feel better."

Eren's brows furrow as if disagreeing with Floch. Floch can't help but to poke it.

"If you wait too long, you're just going to end up regretting it. So stop dawdling. Didn't you say that she loves lilies? Why don't you bring some to her? I'm sure she wants to see how you're doing as much as you miss her."

What was that really pathetic growling noise? Huh? Was that Floch's stomach? Or...

Floch stares at Eren's sleeping face for a second longer. Has Eren eaten? Now that he thinks about it, there's a bowl of porridge in the fridge, isn't there? Zeke must have made that for his little brother before going off to work. Did Eren come out to the living room because he was hungry and then collapsed out here?

"I'll take care of you," Floch vows.

Sure, he hasn't cooked in ages for a good reason, but it's just heating up the bowl of porridge. Even he can do this much!

* * *

Something smells like it's burning.

And isn't that great? He's feeling better enough that he can now smell. And yeah, it's a little worrisome that something might be burning, but hey! He can smell! His cold must be all gone!

"Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit."

That voice sounds suspiciously a lot like Floch's.

... Huh? That's right. Today's the deadline. Did he forget to attach the files to the email he sent?

Shit is right!

This is no time to be sleeping!

Eren bolts upright and groans. Okay. Maybe he isn't fully well yet. Because moving that little hurt so much. Huh? Why is he on the couch? And were those blanket and towel (is that wrapped in a bag of water??) that fell to the ground on him? Did Floch try to nurse him? Eren doesn't really get why he bothered. Floch should've grabbed the files on Eren's computer and left. Still, Eren does feel grateful that the balcony door is now closed.

"F-Floch?" he tries to call out.

Nope. His voice is gone. He can barely get it to a sound above a whisper. Damn it. Does he have to go himself to check what his editor is doing?

"Oh, you're awake!"

Floch's voice sounds super guilty. What the hell did he do?

Okay, dumb question.

Eren can see the black smoke from the kitchen.

"What did you burn?" Eren manages out in a whisper.

"I'm really sorry," Floch says. "Zeke made you some porridge, and I er... burned it really badly."

Oh, that's right. Floch typically eats out or eats one of those microwavable meals, doesn't he? Eren once thought it might be that Floch doesn't have any time to cook. But it's quite possible that he doesn't know how.

Somehow, it makes Eren laugh. Of course, laughing while having a cold means that he's having a coughing fit. But it's the thought that counts.

"H-hey, you alright?"

Floch worriedly hovers nearby. It'll be too mean to say that Eren was laughing at him, right?

"If you ever miss the taste of a homemade meal, shall I cook for you?" Eren offers instead.

There's a small pause of what Eren assumes is gratitude. But that thought flies out the window when Floch reaches over to feel Eren's forehead.

"Yup, your fever is still super high."

See if Eren ever offers again.

"But I do really feel bad about your meal that your brother made. Do you want me to go buy you something to eat in the meanwhile?" Floch asks.

... Okay. Fine. If Floch is really, really nice about asking for a meal, Eren will cook. But that's only if Floch is really, really, really nice. And the circumstances line up and the blue moon is up and all that.

"Ice cream," Eren decides.

Floch frowns. "Would that be enough? I mean, I know ice cream can help with sore throats, but it's not exactly a good replacement for a meal... Here, I'll pick up some soup as well. Do you have a preference?"

For just a second, Eren almost says Carla's creamy potato soup. Hell, he'd even take Grisha's sad attempt at chicken noodle soup. It sucks how much he's missing home, even though he doesn't really think about his parents on an average day. Doesn't that mean he's an ungrateful bastard who only misses people when he's down or has a problem? And the last person he wants to be ever is Reiner.

"Broccoli cheddar," Eren says, randomly picking one that comes to mind.

"Alright."

Floch surprises Eren by picking up Eren's discarded blanket and wrapping it securely around him.

"Promise me you won't move from here?" Floch asks.

Where does Floch think that Eren can possibly go?

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be here."

Why the hell does Floch look so uncertain? No seriously, where does he possibly think Eren will go? It's starting to piss Eren off.

"I'll be right here," Eren repeats firmly.

Floch's lips twitch in amusement. Then he gets a little more serious. "When you're this sick, it's okay to let others take care of you. You know that, right?"

"What's with that? I'm not a kid, you know."

"You say that, but I bet you chased your brother away with the excuse that he might catch it, didn't you?"

Eren hates how well Floch can read him. Why is it that his editor for last two years can predict him better than his childhood friends? Eren doesn't think it's an editor thing, because his previous editor couldn't read him like Floch can. It's frustrating.

"I'll pamper you as much as you want," Floch promises, running his fingers through Eren's hair. "So rely on me."

After a second's hesitation, Eren manages out, "I don't want broccoli cheddar soup. I-if there's a creamy potato soup, I want that."

"Then that's what I'll get."

"F-Floch, erm... t-thanks."

*

Floch leaves Eren with a bottle of water and the remote for the TV handy. But now that Floch has left, Eren realizes once more that oh wait. Today's the deadline.

Right.

It's not that Floch is being nice because he cares about Eren. He's being nice because he needs Eren to hand over the files. Jeesh, Floch should just take it from Eren's computer. Or maybe that makes Floch uncomfortable because it's a "breach of privacy" or whatever? But the computer (and his drawing tablet) is a loan from the publishing company anyways.

Eren stands up and takes a second to steady himself. It feels like it might be harder to walk with the blanket over him, so he leaves it behind on the couch. Then he begins the slow journey to his room.

*

There should be a USB somewhere in his drawer... Aha. Here it is. Eren plugs it into his computer after waking it up. Then he copies the files over. He'll just give this USB to Floch. Then today's deadline will all be taken care of.

Actually, now that he's in his room, he vaguely recalls that he dropped his phone somewhere. He should probably pick that up. Zeke said something about calling him, didn't he? Well, it's possible that Zeke is still doing his presentation, so maybe not call. Oh, he'll just send a selfie.

Yeah. That way, Zeke can see for himself that Eren is alright.

Jeesh, Eren's such a great brother.

* * *

No message from Eren. Zeke can't tell if that's because Eren is still asleep or because Eren is too worried about disturbing Zeke to send a message. Knowing his little brother, Zeke fears it might be the latter.

"Nervous about the presentation?" Pieck asks him with a wry smile.

To be honest, Zeke can barely focus on anything that isn't his little brother right now. But if he were to admit that out loud, Pieck will doubtlessly tease him again for being a BroCon. And damn it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with being a BroCon. Isn't it only right that Zeke will spoil Eren rotten? He missed out on Eren's first 15 years of life because of circumstances he couldn't control. What's wrong with Zeke trying to make up for all the lost years?

It's on the tip of his tongue. That he can't give the presentation because he needs to head home. But the minute he thinks about that, he feels like he can see the look of disappointment on Eren's face. He can't do it. He can't betray his little brother's expectation like that.

"No need to feel nervous. We've prepared everything to the best of our abilities," Zeke says.

Pieck whistles. "Cool as always. That's our War Chief!"

"Please don't call me by such an embarrassing nickname!"

"Eh? It's not embarrassing! It's cool!" Pieck insists.

The grin on her face says otherwise. How does he always get put into groups with people like her?

"Oh, if it isn't Zeke. Are you playing babysitter with your much younger group members again? Promotion just keep dodging you, doesn't it?" asks one of the world's most annoying person, Erwin Smith.

Erwin grins like he's in a photoshoot, all smile without any warmth. This leech of a man belongs to their rival company. Without a doubt, the plan is to try and snatch Zeke's hard-won funding by out-presenting with his typical smiles. But Zeke has planned for this. He is going to-

"Tell Eren to feel better," the other world's most annoying person, Levi Ackerman, tells Zeke.

And huh?

Wait. Wait. How the hell does Levi know that Eren is sick? The only people who should know are those involved directly (so Zeke and Eren) and possibly the few people in the world that Eren would be forced to talk to (Floch for sure. But not any of Eren's friends, since Eren's the type to hide when he's feeling down or vulnerable). So there's absolutely no way that Levi would know about this.

"Hm? He sent me a selfie."

As if to prove his point, Levi pulls up his phone and shows Zeke the picture Eren sent with a "I'm ok. Focus on your presentation."

Why would Eren...?

"That message is for me!" Zeke exclaims. "You didn't even know that he was sick! Give me back my focus for the presentation!"

Levi rolls his eyes. "You blind or something? It was clearly sent to me. If you've got problems, direct it to your mom for giving birth to you."

Damn him for always hitting below the belt!

"Eren's sick? I didn't realize... Levi, let's pick something up for Eren once we have the funding secured," Erwin says.

"He mentioned that there's a new cake shop he wanted to go to," Levi says.

Zeke would just like to point out that he and Eren made plans to go to that cake shop. And damn it all, he is not about to let his and Eren's place (Never mind they haven't actually gone there yet) become tainted by the two most annoying people in the world.

"Neither of you are welcomed in my home!" Zeke declares.

Erwin sighs and shakes his head dramatically. "His little brother is sick, and he's throwing a childish tantrum."

Zeke is not beneath throwing rocks at them again.

"Yelena," Zeke calls for his secretary. "Go to my place and guard it so that no one but me can get in."

"Understood, sir," she says before taking her leave.

Pieck shakes her head at him. But before she can open her mouth, Zeke gives her a warning look. He doesn't want to hear it right now.

*

Few minutes into Erwin's presentation, Zeke receives a message from Eren. There's a selfie of Eren with his pudding that he's been saving for a rainy day with the loving words, "All's well. Good luck with your presentation!"

Zeke beams. So his message is good luck and not "focus." He would always take the good luck anyways.

Oh. Before he forgets, he should contact Carla and ask her for her recipe of the creamy potato soup that Eren is too proud to admit he likes. He bets his little brother would love that as a surprise.

* * *

Floch does not return within two hours after his cool parting words.

That's just what Eren gets for trusting someone. He should have told Floch to go away after giving him the files. Pamper, his ass. Like hell anyone would actually care about him. They're all just here to benefit off of each other, after all. Floch is here for the files. Zeke is here because he's guilty for not being a "proper" big brother. And Eren can't go home. See? They're all just using each other.

Eren will make himself something to eat. He's still shaky on his feet, but he makes to the kitchen without any issues. He's starting to think that maybe the only reason why he's struggling so much is because he's so damned hungry.

His hand touches the fridge door and pauses.

What if Floch does come back? What if he was stuck in traffic? What if the line was super long? What if Floch got mugged on the way back, so he returned to the store to try again? What if Floch is desperately trying to get the food to Eren?

Can Eren really ignores that and stuff his face while cursing Floch out?

With a heavy sigh, Eren opens the fridge and pulls out a single pudding. There. He'll just eat this until Floch gets back.

His phone beeps with a text message, catching his attention. Eren glances at it and startles at the fact that it's from Levi.

"I'm grabbing cake and heading over after the presentation. Do you want anything?" the message reads.

Except huh? Why is Levi coming over? Didn't he swear he'll never do that ever again because Zeke threw rocks at him and Erwin last time?

It's only then that Eren realizes the mistake he made.

The message and selfie he meant to send to Zeke somehow seems to have gone to Levi instead. And of course, they're both at the same presentation, fighting for the funding, aren't they? Eren's headache returns full force.

First thing first. He'll send Zeke a message to let him know that everything is fine. Then he'll tell Levi to not come. What part of Eren is sick and would like to rest did they not get? If Levi comes, he and Zeke will doubtlessly start fighting again. They managed to dodge getting kicked out of the apartment thanks to Erwin's charming smiles and polite apology, but Eren would really like to not repeat something like that when he's sick.

He opens the pudding and takes a spoonful into his mouth. His stomach churns, and he feels his gag reflex acting up. Damn it. So much for eating food. He can't even get his favorite pudding down.

With a heavy sigh, Eren gives up on his pudding. He puts wrap over the pudding and puts it back in the fridge.

*

He stares blankly at the balcony, because hey, isn't that Floch, trying to climb in?

But why? There's a perfectly good entrance door right here. Why would Floch abandon that to climb up through the balcony?

Floch's hand must have slipped. He almost falls. Eren realizes that he'll most likely witness the death of his editor if he doesn't rush over to help. And damn it, Floch. What the hell are you making a sick person do?

Eren opens the balcony door.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting!" Floch yells.

Is that seriously his worry when he's about to fall off?!

"This is the sixth floor!" Eren tries to say. But his voice is too hoarse and too quiet to be audible.

Giving up on that, Eren runs forward to help pull Floch into safety. And no wonder Floch was struggling so much to climb in. He has a plastic baggie filled with a giant Gatorade, the soup that Eren asked for, and a tub of ice cream. Eren is more shocked that the baggie held the items inside without tearing.

"The ice cream probably melted," Floch says, clearly apologetic. "So we'll have to freeze that first. But I bet you're hungry, so let's start with heating up the soup... Er... D-do you mind doing it? Or at least watch over me so I don't burn everything again?"

Yeah, yeah. That's all fine. But Eren really wants to know the reason why Floch decided to scale six floors worth of wall!

"Let's talk inside," Floch suggests.

*

Floch puts the ice cream in the freezer while Eren heats up a bit of the soup in a bowl. It smells delicious, but he's not sure if his stomach will accept it. But Floch climbed (?!) up six floors to Eren's balcony to get him this, so he'll be damned if he doesn't try.

"There's a really scary looking lady guarding your door," Floch explains.

A scary looking lady? Eren doubts it's a neighbor or the landlord. Can't be Mikasa or any of his friends, since none of them should know that he's sick. Then...

"Yelena?"

Floch shrugs. "I don't know who she is. I haven't met her. She had bowl-cut blonde hair. And her eyes were just... really spooky, you know?"

"It's Yelena. Zeke's secretary. She sometimes does other random things for him like getting groceries. I guess he asked her to stop Levi from coming over."

"Is that so? Levi's... er... Hm... He's your friend's...?"

"Uncle," Eren supplies.

Floch nods. "By the way, your voice is pretty much gone, huh? Sorry for making you talk."

It's not like Floch put a gun against Eren's head to make him talk, though. There's no need for Floch to feel sorry about that. Eren's more sorry that Floch was forced to scale the wall to get to the balcony.

"Thanks, Floch," Eren says, hoping his smile doesn't look too awkward.

"You'd do the same for me."

It's the certainty of his words that makes Eren blush. Thank god his cold gives him a flushed look to begin with, so Floch won't be able to tell.

*

The spoonful of potato soup isn't going down. Eren covers his mouth, trying to force it, but it just isn't agreeing with him.

Floch takes the the spoon from Eren's hand and puts the soup to the side. He then takes out the Gatorade and pours a bit of it in a cup.

"If it's not going down, you shouldn't force it. For now, let's try to get some sugar in you."

"Sorry," Eren mumbles. "You worked hard to get that, too."

Floch shakes his head. "Don't worry about that. You can eat it later."

Eren tries to take a sip of the Gatorade and is relieved to find that it at least goes down. He can't wait until he feels better.

"Oh, right." He takes the USB out of his pocket and hands it over to Floch. "The manuscript."

Floch stares at it blankly. Did he forget that today's the deadline? Jeesh, he's such a carefree person. Lucky for him, Eren is here to-

"Eren, this is the third time you've given me the files."

... Huh?

"Remember? You uploaded everything to the cloud. Then you sent me an email with the files. And now this? You did everything on your end, Eren. There's nothing more to do. You can rest now."

Huh? Huh?! He did what?!

Eren drops his head in his hands and groans. "Why was I so worried about?"

Floch laughs and ruffles Eren's hair. He's only laughing now because Eren was responsible enough to get him the files. If Eren hadn't, he wouldn't be laughing. Eren knows how these kinds of stories go.

"Drink that and get some rest. And stop thinking about work. I don't want to scale the walls again to come nurse you back to health."

"Oh, right. Before I go back to sleeping, can you... er... t-that is... Can you help me take a quick shower? I'm kind of sweaty, you know?"

Eren doesn't know how to read that blank expression on Floch's face. Then just as suddenly, Floch flushes red.

"I-it's fine!" he says, voice breaking. "It's fine to be a bit sweaty! It's not like you're going anywhere or see anyone! J-just be as you are!"

What the hell is he talking about? But when Eren asks again, Floch flusters and stammers before managing out, "Y-you should ask Zeke for h-help."

Eren supposes it is kind of weird to ask his editor to help him shower. Besides, Floch already helped out with so much. Eren shouldn't push for more.

"Thanks for everything, though. It uh... m-means a lot."

Floch ruffles Eren's hair in answer.

*

A shower is out of the question, but Eren does brush his teeth. It makes him feel refreshed somehow. He thinks it's the taste of the mint. Maybe he'll be able to eat once he gets up from sleep after this.

Floch tucks him in and sits next to Eren's bed in Eren's super comfortable work chair that he knows Zeke spent way too much money to get. He picks up one of Eren's old manga.

"You don't have to stay," Eren lets him know. "It'll be bad if you caught this, too. So if you have other things to do, you can-"

Floch puts his hand over Eren's eyes. "Shhhh, that's nice. Don't worry about dumb things and just sleep."

Eren doesn't think it's necessarily hate that he feels. But he does feel uneasy about this. Like the minute he accepts this, someone will pull the carpet from under him and laugh in his face. He knows it's irrational, okay? He worked hard to be where he is. It won't all disappear just because he shows a moment of weakness. But...

"Want me to read to you?" Floch offers when he notices that Eren can't seem to settle.

You know what, it's better than letting his thoughts go around in circles.

Eren nods.

*

When he next wakes up, Floch is not in the chair next to his bed. Eren wonders if he was looking forward to seeing that, because he feels oddly disappointed. Well, it's a good thing that Floch left. He should be getting his own rest from a stressful day of climbing up to Eren's balcony and all that.

Eren is feeling a lot better, though. Starving, for sure. And his throat is still sore. But he doesn't have a headache, and he no longer suffers from muscle pains. He bets he can eat that potato soup (and his pudding!) now.

He comes out of his room and smells an achingly familiar scent.

For just a second, he's nine years old with a terrible cold, and Carla is cooking the creamy potato soup in the kitchen.

Eren runs out into the kitchen. His thoughts are too jumbled for him to figure out what it is that he's feeling. Is this excitement at the thought of seeing his mom after so long? Is this anxiety for all the trouble he knows he brought her and has to find ways to apologize for? Is this apprehension? Is this-

He sees Zeke's back in the kitchen. Yelena is by the counter, chopping vegetables. Floch is with them, looking like he isn't sure if he should laugh at whatever was just said.

There's no Carla.

There's no Grisha.

He's not nine years old with a cold.

Ah jeesh, that's so embarrassing. Just how badly did he miss his parents? He should really make plans to go see them and apologize for everything. Maybe he'll take some lilies, since his mom loves those so much.

"Morning," he says lightly to the people gathered.

It'll be a lie if he said he doesn't love the beaming grins on their faces just as much, though.

_Fin._

**Author's Note:**

> "Maybe I should've gotten a different kind of flower," Eren mumbles to himself, glaring at the bouquet of lilies in his hands. "Lilies are cliched, right? I should've gone for something less cliched like... like... I don't know my flowers."
> 
> Zeke is struggling to hold back from laughing. Eren can tell from the way his eyes sparkle.
> 
> "Don't worry, Eren. She won't mind whatever flowers you get her. If there's anything to worry about, I'd be more worried about your hair! Haha!"
> 
> Eren pauses. His hair? W-what's wrong with his hair? He showered last night, and he distinctly remember brushing it this morning. There can't be anything wrong with his hair!
> 
> "Pfft...! I'm joking, Eren!"
> 
> "I have no brother," Eren states flatly.
> 
> The laughter disappears from Zeke's lips. He blinks blankly before trying to smile. "Y-you're joking, right?"
> 
> Eren ignores him to pull out his phone. He pulls up Zeke's contact information and erases "Big Brother" with a pink heart that Zeke put in. Then he replaces it with "Talking Monkey." He shows it to Zeke to make sure that his brother understands the gravity of the situation.
> 
> "Y-you don't mean that! You don't mean that! Change it back!"
> 
> At the very least, Eren feels less nervous about seeing his parents now that he's made his brother come close to tears. Heh. 
> 
> "Hey Zeke, thanks for coming with me," he says lightly.
> 
> He thought Zeke would accuse him of changing the topic, but his brother surprises him. Zeke puts one arm around Eren in a half-hug and squeezes Eren's shoulder.
> 
> "That's because I'm a great big brother. So why don't you change my name back?"
> 
> Eren laughs and provides no answer.
> 
> Later, though, he isn't shocked to see that his brother has already changed the name to "Bestest Brother" with a rainbow heart.
> 
> *
> 
> Carla stares at the two boys blankly for a second longer.
> 
> S-should they have called ahead? But Eren thought that would be awkward. So they dropped in unannounced. Except now he's having second thoughts, and he shouldn't have brought the lilies, right? He should've brought a fruit basket instead. Or maybe some cake. Or maybe even-
> 
> "You idiots!"
> 
> She hugs both of them in her arms and holds them tightly.
> 
> "What took you so long to visit?"
> 
> Eren wonders why he ever doubted coming to see his mom earlier.


End file.
